2009 is almost here...

...scary.

I personally am looking forward to tonight. I'm going to go out to dinner with my family and then heading over to a friend's apartment. Sounds pretty normal, right? Not when the Worthington gang (or Wo-town Gang as we dubbed ourselves a few years ago) is involved. And I KNOW some of them (*cough*Emmy and Caitlin*cough*) read this, and I know they would agree. We play lots of Apples to Apples...like...lots. I'm talking a straight four hours of Apples to Apples (or more. I don't know our record). We'll stop playing a few minutes to midnight, count down to the new year; then we'll yell, scream, carry on, scare the neighbors; and then at 12:01 we'll return to Apples to Apples.

One time over the summer I was actually dealt the card "flying monkeys." It made me happy. :)

I'll have my camera with me tonight and will undoubtedly be taking many ridiculous pictures and videos. I promise to post them here eventually. The videos will probably be the most insane, though...because, as we learned last year, our group can't count. Here's last year's video as proof, and to tide you over, because I'm awesome like that.

Anyway, I hope you all have an amazing New Year's Eve. Spend some time with friends and family and enjoy ringing in the new year! See you all in 2009!

Merry Christmas!

So, I couldn't be left out of this holiday spirit going on at the blog tonight. So Happy Hanukkah to our amazing choreographer and Merry Christmas!

I've been doing a lot of writing down ideas even though our chats haven't been very productive. Writing is very fun for me and I feel like I get a lot out of writing for Thea because she is inspired by me and what happens in my life.

I'm currently working on a song called, "I Would Totes Live in a Cardboard Box." It was one of my earlier ideas that I'm trying to make work so M and B don't just think I'm crazy...but I can make my crazy ideas work. Wish me luck!

Hope you all had a very good Christmas and I hope you have a great new year! Hopefully there's some vampire slaying in your new year's resolution and we'll all have a very creative and fun 2009!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas (or Happy Hanukkah) everyone! It's been a long and exhausting 24 hours, but I wouldn't trade it for the world! Hope you are having fun celebrating the holidays with your families and friends, I know I am! :)

Happy Holidays!

Because I know all three of us are going to be pretty busy over the next couple days, I thought I would come on here and wish everyone Happy Holidays! Enjoy spending time with friends and family, be safe, stay warm. And Happy New Year too, if I don't post again before that happens. I think 2009 is going to be an exciting year for us as we continue to get this show written!

So...again...

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!!!

Holy Outlines, Batman!

Last night's chat was both ADD and productive. That seemingly doesn't make sense, but I promise it does. We spent much of the chat sitting in awkward silence, because we were all distracted by different things--online shopping, TV, Facebook, whatever--but after I stopped playing on Picnik, B stopped looking for coffee makers, and Katie woke up, we actually got something major done. We started outlining the show! Granted, this process was broken up every so often because of Tamila, YouTube, and Katie's spontaneous giggle fits, and we've only got about six scenes set, but that's still a major accomplishment for us. Now the writing can seriously begin!

Just thought I'd share

A couple nights ago, while talking on Skype and desperately trying to keep focused long enough to write a song (no, we never actually got a song written), we started randomly trying to figure out how the three of us would get to NYC to attend Susan Blackwell's Die Vampire Die workshop. I don't even remember half of what was brought up during that conversation, probably because I wasn't 100% paying attention, but I do remember that this quality exchange came up at one point:

Katie: M, do you want to go to New York City?
B: Isn't that the whole point of our musical?!

We tend to say a lot of really...bizarre things during our conversations when we're getting nothing done. During that chat, I decided to start writing down some of the funnier and more random things that are said. Granted, these are my own opinions, but I've noticed that while trying to write conversations between our characters in the book, well, it's hard for me to remember the attitudes that specific people take on. It's not because I don't know Katie and B as well as I should, because I don't feel that's the case, but it's more because all three of us say really weird things when we're talking to each other and it's hard for me to distinguish some of the weird things we say from each other. While we're alike in some respects, the three of us definitely have differing opinions on various things and our levels of hyperness change from chat to chat. And it's hard for me to remember who is more like what. If that makes any sense.

So...a couple of the things I wrote down from our last chat (both are quotes of B's)...

"There are huge air bubbles in my hot chocolate."
"You're on SPEED, Katie."

Keep an eye open for silly things like that appearing in the chats in our musical. ;)

Oooh two in a row!

Go me, two blogs in a row! Too bad neither are as cramazing as this, but I try. When I focus.

Anyway. We're attempting to write music right now...but only Katie seems to be focused. Me is sleepy and distracted, and M is messing with downloads.

And now we're talking about alcohol.

Click here if you want to kill vampires.

I think we're crazy.

Hi. Look, M, I'm finally posting! *sticks out tongue*

So, we're chatting on Skype. Katie's been sooo productive tonight, and M and I are goofing off (okay, mostly just me...one of those moods tonight!). Anyway, we're working once again, now that classes are over or almost over for the semester (or in M's case, winter break). Hopefully the blog will be kept up once again now that we're back :)

Posting FAIL

Come on, guys! Post blogs!

Since the other two are slackers, I'll post again. :P

In talking to Katie over IM this evening, we've both learned some important things. We might have actually learned these progressively over the last week, but we actually talked about it tonight. Since we're basing the three main characters off ourselves, this gives way to some deep, deep exploration. This kind of exploration feels...weird, for lack of a better word. As Katie pointed out to me, it's almost like we're judging ourselves...we don't want to share the weaknesses too, but that's what's going to translate well into the characters we're creating for this show.

For me, though? This kind of exploration is almost painful...but not a bad painful. If that makes any sense at all. It almost makes me feel sad...not depressed, but just a little sad. There are feelings I've unearthed that I think I've been keeping down. Particularly the feelings linked to my fear of graduation. The hardest of these feelings, for me, is the feeling of failure. That's what I think I'm most scared of with graduation. I'm scared I'm not going to succeed. And that's a hard fear to face and a hard emotion to overcome. I can deal with being scared of graduation itself--it's a one-day event and then it's over and done with. I can't deal as easily with that fear of failure.

But in discovering these deeper emotions and fears and things that are making me tick that I didn't even realize much before...I've discovered a deeper level to the character of Aimee. She has now, finally, been set apart more from the other two. They're no longer just three girls who could be interchangeable. Digging into these emotions, as weird or painful or whatever that may be, that's what's setting these characters apart. And that's a big leap for us to make at this point.

Ordering tickets stresses me out

This has absolutely nothing to do with this musical, other than the fact that I was buying tickets for a musical I've been fan girling for...years. But I'm going to take out my stress on here anyway.

So, my roommate Kathleen...my friend Tracy...and I are all going to take a spring break trip together. Woohoo! And the plan has been since, oh, about June that we're going to swing by Appleton, WI first to see the tour of Wicked and then spend several days in Chicago. Fantastic. Great plan. We're psyched. It'll be my third time seeing the show, Kathleen's second, and Tracy's first (awww). We put hotels on reservation a couple weeks ago and then we're all like "time to order tickets for Wicked!"

This sounds easier than it was. Tickets went on sale today...7am central time at the Wisconsin box office (oh, too bad I live in Ohio)...10am central time online. Great. So I get up at 10am my time to check that Ticketmaster hasn't made a glitch and opened the orders early. No such luck. At exactly 11am our time, Kathleen and I are sitting in our apartment, both with our laptops (mine on Ticketmaster, hers on the seating chart) and we start trying to find tickets.

We first search for three tickets, best available seating, 7:30 pm on Feb. 28...

"We're sorry, there are no tickets that match your search."

Okay...three tickets, best available seating, 2pm on Feb. 28...

"We're sorry, there are no tickets that match your search."

We try this series about 50 million more times before we search for three tickets, best available seating, 7:30pm Feb. 27....

We get some seats, but that means we'll have to drive instead of taking the bus. And our indecisiveness came into play here, because we couldn't decide if it was worth it. And by the time we decided it was...

"You have run out of the allotted time and these tickets have been re-released."

*groan*

Long story short...we ended up having to order one set of 2 tickets and then one single ticket. Not the best scenario, because we'll be on opposite ends of the theatre from each other (even though we're in the same section) and we ended up in the Grand Tier (not our first choice). We keep justifying this to ourselves to make us feel better that it didn't work out the way we wanted.

"Well, at least we'll all be seeing Wicked at the same show."

Special trio

I'll give us credit...we have started to get some stuff done. B got down some song lyrics, potential dialogue, and some character development. I know this because she emailed us...I'm not being a creeper. I got down a few pages of book tonight...a large portion of which is some of the potential dialogue B created.

However...while we did actually chat tonight...we didn't really chat about the show. We chatted about everything except the show, though...sang some random songs...had a few long, awkward silences while everyone was doing their own thing.

But, you know what? Even when we don't get stuff done, I love these chats. I love when we just talk. It's nice to have someone to talk to online who isn't someone who have to deal with 24-7 at school or at home. And, really, a lot of time we have a lot of fun. We have our conversations that are more meaningful and stuff...and we have our conversations that are just ridiculous, where we're all almost peeing ourselves with laughter. And we have a couple inside jokes...already...after just a few days of talking. Something about people not going to bed when someone's in the bathroom (I'm not elaborating) and you can always make us giggle if you say "quickies." We're a special trio, but that's what makes this fun!

Count Your Blessings

School has forced us to take a night off from our brainstorming chats. While getting an education is important, it is most definitely not as fun as our random conversations. We're all sort of struggling at the moment with the place we are in our lives. We're struggling to figure out our futures and to finally be "grown up." We're using these lovely life experiences to fuel our creativity and using this musical as an outlet for our emotions. We know there are lots of people out there who need one more show tune to procrastinate to... But in all honesty, where we are now is going to be a huge part of our musical. Creating the characters, families, struggles, and situations has really made me think a lot about myself. I was playing, "Count Your Blessings" earlier on my piano. It's a song from White Christmas and some of the lyrics really pertain to us and our lives.

When I'm worried and I can't sleep
I count my blessings instead of sheep
And I fall asleep counting my blessings
When my bankroll is getting small
I think of when I had none at all
And I fall asleep counting my blessings
I think about a nursery and I picture curly heads
And one by one I count them as they slumber in their beds
If you're worried and you can't sleep
Just count your blessings instead of sheep
And you'll fall asleep counting your blessings

Even tonight as B and I sit complaining about our take home quizzes and papers, we have a lot of blessings to count. We so often joke about how our lives aren't that great because we can't get to NYC but in all honesty, we've got so much more than we could ever ask for. I love how music can speak to people in ways words can't and that's part of the reason I need to write the music for this musical. I need to use what I've been learning since I can remember and turn it into something that can be communicated to others in the way I can't say with words. I am so excited to get this musical going and I know that our well deserved break is coming in just a few weeks. I am very excited about this project and I know that I should count my blessings for the pure joy it has given me. So remember, when you're lying in bed tonight thinking about your struggles, remember how much you have and how blessed you are. And you'll fall asleep counting your blessings.

Stupid school.

So, we haven't gotten much done today. Between school and other commitments plus our lack of attention span, this is gonna take a lot longer to do than I thought! Good news, though, is that we all have our notebooks to keep with us for ideas so that we don't space out and forget ideas when we all get online each night. Crossing fingers that we will be able to pull this off in a reasonable amount of time! :D

Day 3...

We have spent a few hours talking on Skype. Like, literally talking...using fancy headsets and everything. Granted, this decision, while amusing, was not entirely inspired. Our attention spans do not allow for us to actually be able to hear each other. And when one headset stops working, well, then we feel the need to pretend we understand technology. Which we do not. But it's fun nonetheless to talk to each other in real-time.

Hunter (of [title of show] fame) posted on my wall today. I wish to share it here. I had asked him if he had any advice for us, since we have no experience with writing an original musical. Here's what he said:

Hunter Bell (New York, NY) wrote at 11:21pm
i vote trust your instincts - wrote what you love and what makes you laugh and what you'd want to see! :)

Just to reiterate...

This is really happening!

I felt it was time for me to blog again. I have no idea why. Maybe because last night's chat was so exciting and inspiring and now I can't stop thinking about it. We totally killed those gnatty-attention-span vampires (is that even what you'd call them?) and got down to work. It was crazy how much we accomplished in the course of an hour. Okay, so we'd been talking for a good six or seven hours by that time, but we still got a lot accomplished.

This musicals going to rock, let me just tell you that now. It's going to be goofy, but it's going to have heart too. We want people to understand why Broadway fans become so loyal and connected--not just to the shows they love and Broadway in general, but to each other. Some of my closest friends I've met that way...heck, that's how the three of us met! We've got some crazy plans in the works, guys. Crazy and wonderful.

We know how the opening is going to look. We don't know what the dialogue is going to be, or what the song is going to be, or any of those details. But we do know what it's going to look like when that curtain opens. And that's definitely something.

Lovely readers, we're doing this. I almost think that after that first chat...even though we were excited...we weren't 100% convinced with ourselves that this would happen. Our attention spans were too short, we got nothing done, and we hadn't killed all those vampires still lurking in us. But they're killed now! After last night's chat, I'm convinced of that. The music, lyrics, dialogue...okay, so we don't have those down yet...but they're coming. I can feel them coming. In the next couple days, I'm planning on sitting down and scratching out the opening scene. Katie's already going full-force into music writing. I think B's got some lyrics up her sleeve. It's not going to be easy, and it's not going to happen fast...this whole thing is going to take a while and it's going to be a lot of work--I think we've finally begun to realize that. But this is going to be awesome. And I couldn't be more excited!

No Vampire Zone

Have you ever wondered why we're obsessed with Broadway musicals?

Have you ever felt the need to find someone who truly understands you?

Do you wish you could run away from life?

Then this musical is for you! We're slowly but surely figuring this thing out. We're throwing ideas out there and we've decided these discussions have only 2 rules.

1. It's a no vampire zone!

2. We're going to be completely honest with each other.

With rules like that, who knows what we'll come up with!?

Epic Randomness

Yes, I'm posting again. I have no life.

B (that would be Erin B.), Katie, and I have been in a skype chat for...at least an hour and a half. Maybe longer. I've lost track of time. All I know is that I was going to do laundry, and they distracted me. *shakes finger*

Anywho...in the course of this very, very long chat, very little has been accomplished. I mean, okay, we figured out character names and 3 out of 4 descriptions and where this crazy thing is taking place. But, really, that's not a lot. Plot? Still haven't figured that minor detail out yet. We do know that the characters' names are Thea, Holly, Aimee, and Trudy (although Tamila doesn't know about the Trudy thing yet...) and it's taking place in a suburb outside STL. That's about all.

We're easily distracted. After we fought with AIM chat for a while, then switched to Skype...then talked about creepers and show peeps and all that...this gem popped up:

[9:58:50 PM] Katie Andersen says: I still need some lyrics
[9:59:00 PM] Erin Bahrt says: i need some plot lol

And then I got confused a few times and Katie's nose started bleeding and...then I was confused again. We sang along to Seussical and Sound of Music for about .5 seconds each.

Basically, we all have the attention span of gnats.

Die vampire...die?

So, you've gotten the backstory on our little project now. I'm the "other" Erin. Erin B, or Liza if you prefer (but please don't prefer it). I'm the one writing the lyrics to this amazing show!

Erin M and Katie both talked about killing their vampires in their "intro posts." I'm sure you're wondering what in the world they are referring to, aren't you? Clickity click click to listen to it, but in short, as the song explains, a vampire is something that keeps you from expressing your creative self. Pretty much everyone has vampires, and we're slaying ours by doing this musical!

You might be asking what this show is about. To be honest? We're still figuring it out ourselves. All I can say for sure is that it's gonna be crazy fun and entertaining! Keep checking back for more on the storyline and the music!

My Intro?

Here's my story. I get home from Michigan, where I had been for Thanksgiving, and I get on facebook. It tells me I have six freaking notifications. Whatever. So I click the little thing and I have two new wall posts. Interesting. The first is from Erin B.:

Erin Bahrt wrote at 4:37pm
K, so Katie A and I are writing a musical. She's in charge of the music, I'm in charge of the lyrics (apparently haha), Tamila is in charge of the choreography (she just doesn't know it yet) and you get to write the book. You in?

This was followed almost immediately by:

Katie Andersen wrote at 4:59pm
And our musical is about some fan girls who need to get to NYC and they are totally willing to live in a cardboard box if they have to and/or join the pirates to make some money to get themselves there. Does this sound familiar to anyone else...?

Moral of the story...of course I said yes and now here I am. What a lovely and exciting thing to come home to after spending an entire day in the car with my family!

So...I suppose introductions are in order? If they're not...deal. I'm going to introduce myself anyway. I'm Erin Millar (or Erin M....or Erin #1...or Erin #2 depending on the situation). Whatever name I'm referred to...I'm the "other Erin" Katie was talking about down in her post. Which means, for any of you having trouble keeping up, I'm the book writer for this lovely (if a bit scary) musical. I say it's going to be a bit scary because it's us. If you don't know us...first of all HI! Second of all...we can be a little scary, I'll admit it. And I don't mean horror-movie-knife-through-the-shower-curtain scary. I mean scary in the sense that we tend to be fan girls. Thus, the musical.

I've already scared my roommate, if that's any consolation.

But, yes, this musical will rock, this blog will be nothing but entertaining, I'm sure. Keep checking back here for entertainment and follow us along on this fantastic, scary, vampire-slaying journey. Because that's exactly what it's going to be. :)

An Original Blog

Katie (3:30:33 PM): I think we should write a musical
Katie (3:30:38 PM): I'll do the music
Erin B. (3:30:38 PM): lol
Katie (3:30:41 PM): you do the lyrics
Katie (3:30:47 PM): maybe the other Erin could do the book
Erin B. (3:30:52 PM): ooh yeah
And so our idea was born.

All the cool musical writers have blogs, and we're no exception.

Basically, all we know is we want to write a musical chronicling the lives of fan girls who long so much to visit New York City that they are completely ok with the idea of living in a cardboard box or joining a band of pirates to afford it. We don't have any experience, we don't have any idea what we're getting ourselves into, but our vampires have been suppressed and we're ready to give it a try.